eight video games that want to appeal to series fans

And if the future of series was to draw new ideas from the (already very rich) past of video games ? If cinema has broken teeth quite regularly on game adaptations, the series see on the contrary a pool of scenarios, universes and characters which “would make good series”. One of the reasons is in particular the long time which characterizes the two formats: on a small screen, connected or not to a console, the stories take place over several hours, even tens of hours, allowing all to be developed at greater length. their elements.

The surprise success of “The Last of Us”

At the beginning of 2023, the American channel HBO (“Game of Thrones”, “Six Feet Under”, “The Wire”, etc.) launches “The Last of Us”, a post-apocalyptic series adapted from the video game of the same name, huge hit released on PlayStation in 2013. The scenario of the first season is generally modeled on that of the first game (a sequel, “The Last of Us Part II”, was released in 2020 and will be adapted in season 2 in 2025): we follows the exodus, twenty years after the appearance of a devastating epidemic linked to a parasitic fungus, a grieving father and a strangely immune teenage girl.

The surprise is that it’s a cardboard box. The players are delighted to find a work worthy of the original, the others discover the dark and unmanichaematic universe of “The Last of Us”, which above all asks many questions about what makes us human. The final episode attracted 8.2 million viewers at the time of its broadcast in the United States.

A success which can be explained in particular by the respect for the original video game, but also by the means invested to transcribe it. Because the lesson of the series “The Last of Us” is that you should not hesitate to invest to hope to win.

“Fallout”, the adaptation of a universe more than a scenario

A lesson that the giant Amazon seems to have learned with its series adaptation of the video games “Fallout”, which arrived this Thursday on its Prime Video service. A post-apocalyptic world again, but originally a little more classic: in the video games and the “Fallout” series, the United States was devastated in the 1950s by a series of nuclear explosions. Only a handful of survivors had time to reach armored bunkers isolated from this devastated outside world. And it is soon time for their descendants, completely out of step with the outside world, to emerge…

The first trailer, unveiled in December, smells of millions of dollars of special effects, and seems rather faithful to the original material, under the leadership of the creators of “Westworld”, a series with a fairly similar atmosphere. The challenge is undoubtedly less restrictive than for “The Last of Us”: in the “Fallout” games, it is less the scenario than the universe that is important. It will be up to the series to develop its own stories in this very particular atmosphere, between horror, action, but also humor, thanks to the delightful gap between characters stuck in the 50s after several decades locked in a bunker, and those who had to evolve to survive in wild lands.

“God of War”, the riskiest adaptation?

After the success of “The Last of Us,” it made sense for Sony to dig through the rest of its game catalog to identify other promising adaptations. It must be said that the company already has a foothold in several media, including video games (with the PlayStation) and cinema (with adaptations of Spider-Man in particular). And among the candidates for “serification”, “God of War” seems both promising, and extremely slippery.

The series, whose production was formalized at the end of 2022 by Sony Pictures Television Studios, will have the difficult task of telling the story of Kratos, an aging Greek god of war who has taken refuge in the far North, as he tries to escape from his bloody past, to survive the assaults of a local pantheon that is not exactly welcoming, and to educate his young son Atreus to try to spare him the same heavy fate.

“God of War”, Amazon Prime version, has several challenges to overcome: transposing the delicate cocktail of intense violence and muted emotion of the game, but also its structure. One of the strengths of the game is in fact that it is made up of a gigantic video game sequence shot, without ellipses or breaks in the story. Untransposable as is in series… But we’ll wait and see.

“Tomb Raider”, Lara Croft in anime version

Less expensive, but potentially just as profitable: adaptation into animation. This is one of Netflix’s strong positions in recent years, which massively produces cartoons for all audiences (notably adaptations of video games like “Castlevania” Or “Devil May Cry”). Next big project to date: an adaptation of the adventures of the video game adventurer Lara Croft, appearing for the first time in 1996, then in the cinema three times.

Few images available at the moment, but the series seems to be inspired by the “modern” version of the character, the one launched in 2013. A young, naive Lara Croft, who little by little became the heroine we know after the sinking of her ship on a Pacific island.

“Arcane”, the little gem that surpassed the video game

Among the animated series produced by Netflix, there is another video game adaptation that has exceeded all expectations. Taken from the multiplayer video game “League of Legends”, a reference in the world of e-sport, “Arcane” took the series audience by surprise thanks to its high quality of animation and writing. The first season released in 2021 was a huge success for Netflix, audiences and critics, becoming the week of its release the most watched English-language series on the platform. On the aggregator “Rotten Tomatoes”, 100% of the reviews for the series are positive. And a second season is in production.

A success due in particular to the choice not to adapt the video game but to concentrate on its universe and on the history of some of its characters. The visual style of the series also amazed animation fans: we owe it to the French studio Fortiche Production. Cock-a-doodle Doo !

“Alan Wake”, the game inspired by the series which will become a series

It’s an adaptation that is almost obvious, as the first video game “Alan Wake” borrowed from the codes of the TV series. The story was told in the form of successive episodes, with end credits and small “Previously on Alan Wake” interludes at the start of the next chapter. No surprise, therefore, that the AMC channel (“Breaking Bad”, “The Walking Dead”) acquires the rights to the game in 2022, a year after the release of a remastered version of the game, and a year before the release of its sequel.

We follow the story of Alan Wake, a sort of video game Stephen King lacking inspiration, who is desperately looking for his missing wife in a remote corner of the United States. Before realizing that he may indeed be trapped in one of his novels. Bad luck, it’s precisely the novel that he fails to write, and of which he therefore has no memory. With its atmosphere between “Twin Peaks”, “X-Files” and horror novels, “Alan Wake” has what it takes to make an excellent series.

“Life is Strange”, a more intimate game and series

Imagined by the French independent studio Don’t Nod, the first game “Life is Strange” was a surprise success when it was released in 2015. It told the story of Max Caufield, a young photography student who returns to the small town of ‘Arcadia Bay and her childhood friend Chloe Price. She will also save the latter’s life by discovering that she has the power to go back in time over short periods… A power which has an increasingly heavy price, which will endanger all residents of Arcadia Bay.

Very inspired by American series (the game was itself divided into five episodes) and “teen movies”, and more broadly by stories of the transition from adolescence to adulthood, “Life is Strange” is in the pipeline for ‘Amazon for several years now. The company dj2 Entertainment is responsible for this adaptation, with musician Shawn Mendes co-producing… And that’s pretty much all we know. We hope that the result will be faithful to the intimate and moving atmosphere of the original game.

“Disco Elysium”, how to adapt the unadaptable?

How to turn a video game into a series where the main character can, depending on your choices, become a brilliant investigator or an alcoholic and broke bum, where the narrator is as omnipresent as in a novel, where the story is intertwined with concepts of political theory , and where a significant part of the dialogue is done with voices in your head? The challenge seems impossible, but dj2 Entertainment is responsible for taking it up, for broadcast also planned on the Prime Video platform.

We’re not going to lie to each other, we only believe very moderately in this television version of one of the most profound video game stories of recent years: deprived of the great freedom of action that it leaves to the player, “Disco Elysium ” risks seeming particularly bland. But we are still very curious to see what this work, deeply anti-capitalist and anarchist, can become in the hands of the giant Amazon.